Girls’ wrestling team at Randall High School?

JAMES BARRINGTON Canyon News staff

Published 1:00 pm, Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Lisa White, and her daughter, Madison, made an impassioned appeal to the Canyon ISD board of education Monday evening, to bring girls’ wrestling to Randall High School. Randall has built a strong tradition of boys’ wrestling, winning team and individual state championships over the years, but now the girls want to play too.

White said that her daughter will be a freshman next year and has been wrestling on a highly competitive levels since she was 5 years old. She is now 14 and wants to take her skills and competitive nature into the high school arena.

As a “visitor” addressing the board, there was no immediate response to the request, but an agenda item presented by CISD athletic director Brent McCallie specifically addressed the request with a recommendation that the board consider approving the new sport.

McCallie reported that the UIL had added girls’ wrestling to their list of recognized sports in 1998 and it has been growing ever since. He noted that there are now 250 girls’ wrestling programs across the state, compared to 273 boys’ program.

In 2007, shortly before McCallie arrived at CISD from Dumas, a survey had been conducted among students and parents at CISD to determine interest, McCallie said. “The numbers were inconsistent,” he said. But in a new survey that he conducted last December, he reported that about 100 responses were received. While he noted that many were from parents and grandparents, he said about 50 were from students who expressed interest in the program. He noted that about 9-12 girls between the fifth and 11th grades would be sufficient to make a program that could participate in about seven or eight of the 10 weight classes for girls.

In response to the survey results, McCallie had met with a group of parents and students recently and had looked at the start-up costs and the annual costs of the program. The parents had expressed willingness in helping with the projected $4,000 - $6,000 start-up costs, primarily modifications to the dressing rooms and purchase of uniforms and equipment. Since McCallie projected that it is likely that the staffing can be done “in-house,” the annual costs would be in the range of $3,000 - $5,000. He based many of his projections on the operations of Amarillo ISD that ran both boys’ and girls’ wrestling programs.

Superintendent Mike Wartes commended McCallie for looking into it and suggested that the board members take time to review the proposal, letting staff address any questions they may have. The next board meeting will be on May 20, at which time the question can be addressed.

In an earlier presentation by “visitors” to the board, Dusty Rogers, father of Jake Rogers, had expressed concerns regarding how Canyon’s head baseball coach had handled an opportunity his son recently had to be seen by scouting representatives of five different major league baseball teams.

In other business, the board approved the hiring of Dekker, Perich & Sabatini, an architectural firm with an office in Amarillo, to work with the district on facilities improvements and upgrades. Those improvements included roof and HVAC repairs or replacements at several campuses, upgrades of restrooms and concession facilities at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium and expansion of FFA facilities at Canyon High School.

The board also extended the contract with Aramark for food services. The original contract had a provision that allowed for four additional one-year extensions. The extension approved was the third of four possible extensions before the services must be re-bid.

The third contract approved was an audit engagement letter with Brown, Graham & Company, the firm that has provided independent audit for the school district for a number of years.

Board chairman Randy Darnell commended the work of the financial committee of the board and reminded all in attendance that the auditors work for the board and that the board should maintain a “hands-on” relationship with the auditors.

Wartes included several items of note in his report to the board. The GT (gifted-talented) Student Showcase will be held from noon-1:30 p.m. on April 30 at the District Support Center. Announcement of Superintendent Scholars would be at 7 p.m. on May 6 in the CHS auditorium. With campus teachers of the year selected by the staff, the selection of the district-wide secondary and elementary teachers of the year would be announced at a gathering at 8:30 a.m. on May 9 at the Alumni Banquet Hall on the WTAMU campus. Graduation exercises will be on May 31. The Randall graduation will be at 5 p.m. at the Amarillo Civic Center and the Canyon graduation will be at 7:30 p.m. in the First United Bank Center.

Wartes also introduced Ann Girard, who ran unopposed for Place 4 on the board, replacing Roger Short, who will be leaving the board at the end of his term. Girard, who has been active in PTA in the past, decided when her WT-student daughter attended a board meeting, that it would be a good opportunity for her to get more involved. She also has a fifth-grade daughter at Greenways Intermediate School.

The board gratefully accepted seven donations totaling $5,541.51. The two exceeding $1,000 were $2,453.07 from the book fair proceeds of the Crestview PTA for the Crestview library and $1,128.44 from the book fair proceeds of the Sundown Lane PTA for the Sundown Lane library.